Yang Kai, a local enterprise official, was sentenced to 15 years' jail for having embezzled three million yuan (about 428,500 US dollars), according to the first verdict of a local court in this capital city of northwest China's Gansu Province this week.

The Lanzhou People's Intermediate Court heard Yang, a human resources and fund administration cadre of the North Paint Industrial Design Institute, misappropriated 3.36 million yuan of retirement pay, housing fund and pension and frittered it on lottery purchasing, stock speculation, and gambling.

The court held that Yang took advantage of his post and of management loopholes in his enterprise in 2001-2007. Yang, having lived in fear, turned himself in to the procuratorate in August, 2007.

Yang confessed that he wanted to embezzle money to pay for his father's medication, and found himself addicted to lottery later and had no way of handling his addiction.

Yang misappropriated 6.39 million yuan in total and returned 3.03 million yuan, said the court.

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2008)